On Wednesday, March 30, 2016, the Midtown Memphis Development Corporation (MMDC) presented the second annual Mojo Of Midtown Awards to people and organizations who, through their talent, motivation, innovation and Mojo, have made a significant difference in promoting and preserving this most vital part of the City of Memphis. The event will took place at Midtown landmark Circuit Playhouse, 51 South Cooper.

And the winners are…

ARDENT STUDIOS – JODY STEPHENS ACCEPTING

Jody Stephens

Among both fans and creators of Memphis music, the names of recording studios and record labels are almost as well known as the artists themselves. Ardent Studios is one of those, along with Sun Records, Stax Records, American Studios and Hi Records. From Soul to Rock to Power Pop to Contemporary Christian, Ardent Studios has been the source of some of the world’s great music for fifty years. As the late John Fry put it, “Something good happens here.” Ya think?

In 1959 John Fry, at the age of fifteen, cut his first single. In 1966 he moved his makeshift recording studio out of his parents’ garage and Ardent Studios began. The Madison Avenue studios – on the edge of Overton Square – have been Ardent’s home since 1971.

Try wrapping your head around even this brief sampling of performers who have recorded at Ardent: Isaac Hayes, Led Zeppelin, Sam and Dave, The Staple Singers, Bob Dylan, Al Green, The Allman Brothers Band, The White Stripes, Big Star. Then there’s the talent at the recording consoles. Besides Fry there were Jim Dickinson, Terry Manning, John Hampton, Joe Hardy and Jim Gaines. The current engineering/production staff includes Adam Hill and Mike Wilson.

Ardent Studios is celebrating its first fifty years this year by moving forward into its next fifty. Led by its new Chairman, Pat Scholes (past Ardent senior staff, co-owner) along with other senior staffers – Elizabeth Montgomery, Dan Russo and Reed Turchi – the team continues to build momentum with artist development as a core theme. New releases on both Ardent labels and anniversary studio promotions feature a “giving-back” component by offering 50 free days of studio time and other packages to emerging artists.

Jody Stephens is now Director of Business Development at Ardent. He recorded there too, first as the drummer for the legendary Memphis band Big Star. He says the key to Ardent’s success and longevity was that John Fry knew “creative relationships were based on personal relationships” and that “you know great things can happen here because great things have happened.” Just looking at the gold and platinum singles and albums on the walls of Ardent, it’s easy to see that he’s right.

Over the past 6 months we’ve been asked what sets Make Memphis! apart from other sites like “Choose 901” or “I Love Memphis.” Well, while those sites are fantastic cheerleaders for the city, and came along at the exact right time to boost citizen morale, we feel like it’s time to take the next step and take a critical view of our fair city, it’s leaders and it’s future.

We want to share the thoughts and stories of the people of Memphis and encourage them to be as honest as possible. We want anyone who has a vision for change to have a platform to share that vision. We are excited when citizens question the systems that aren’t working and seek out better solutions for decades old problems.

So far the feedback has been great! We’ve had 50,000 visitors to the site and we now have over 3,000 members in our Facebook Group! We have a lot of ideas to grow the site even more and to give more citizens the opportunity to voice their concerns and ideas. We’ve also reached the point where it’s time to figure out how to pay for the site.

We’ve thought about this a lot. As other Memphis-oriented sites are sponsored by city organizations or donors with specific interests, we are weary to go that route. Not only do we not want to spend time courting advertisers or donors (we’d rather spend our time looking for stories and cultivating ideas) but we are worried that once we have sponsorships, our voices may be censored. Above all else, we want this site to be a place where people can share their thoughts honestly. Could we be critical of the city or it’s leaders if we sought out public money? We’re not sure the politics that come along with that, but we have the feeling that it wouldn’t go over well!

So, for now we’ve decided to self-fund with merchandise sales. So, if you believe in our mission and have enjoyed our content, we hope you will support Make Memphis! by purchasing a t-shirt. We have a lot of ideas for more content but we can’t do it without your help! Click on the photo to see our vast array of designs with lots more to come! And thank you for your support!

As we come upon the end of 2015, Make Memphis! is about to celebrate two years as a group of like-minded Memphians reaching out to make our city a better place to live. We started out strong, partnering with Ioby in order to take several community-oriented ideas and bring them to fruition. And while our Facebook group has continued to grow over the years to become a place where people can share ideas and connect, we can’t help but think that we could be doing more.

That’s where this new site comes into play. We’ll be adding op-eds from folks who have big ideas on how to make Memphis a more livable city. We’ll dissect the decisions our leaders are making and decide as citizens whether they are serving us or serving themselves. We’ll be adding a podcast where we discuss what makes our city unique and what we can do to overcome some of our biggest obstacles, like crime, blight, and disintegrating neighborhoods and schools.